There is an edge to Manuel Neuer that is rarely seen during games. The Schalke goalkeeper, who has told fans to believe in a miracle at Old Trafford , possesses that peculiar ingredient that makes good goalkeepers great: an element of madness. But perhaps that is only natural when you have Jens Lehmann as your role model.

Lehmann is the man who was once sent off for insulting a team-mate, who has ripped the glasses off a supporter in a hissy fit, who has admitted live on TV that he gives his two-year-old daughter (alcohol-free) beer and fought with cameramen. Some role model.

"I always looked up to Jens," Neuer said. "First of all he played for Schalke and I was always impressed by his way of playing and his charisma. He is an attacking goalkeeper. I used to come early to home games when I was little to watch Jens warm-up. He was quite innovative and he did exercises during warm-ups that I hadn't seen anyone else do before."

The 25-year-old's performance against United last Tuesday was reminiscent of Peter Schmeichel at his best, starfish saves and all. Neuer recently announced on his Facebook site that he is leaving Schalke, the club he joined as a five-year-old, at the end of the season, but United's chances of signing him appear remote. The goalkeeper looks set to stay in Germany and when he was asked last month if he had thought about playing abroad, he answered: "No, not really. I can go abroad twice a year, in my summer holidays and in my winter holidays. Do you have to play abroad as a footballer? Some players say so but I am not of that opinion."

Bayern Munich want to sign him and what Bayern want, they normally get (despite their fans staging a protest against Neuer the last time Schalke visited, with a whole section holding up signs that said "Koan Neuer" – No Neuer – because of his ties with Schalke). There has been the usual bartering in public between Schalke and Bayern, but the best bet is that the goalkeeper, who has one year left on his contract, will leave Gelsenkirchen for around €20m (£18m) and head to Bavaria in the summer.

Neuer was given his first ball at the age of two and joined Schalke three years later. When he was 11 he stood at the Parkstadion and watched on a giant screen how Lehmann saved a penalty from Iván Zamorano as Schalke won the 1997 Uefa Cup. Remarkably, though, he nearly quit football at the age of 13 when he was omitted from the regional Westfalen side for being too small. However, Lothar Matuschak, responsible for the youth-team goalkeepers at Schalke, saw Neuer's potential and asked the club to be patient with his special talent.

Neuer is a goalkeeping coach's dream disciple. Apart from his athleticism and reactions, the 25-year-old is extremely good with his feet and has an outrageous throw. Before he was well known, Neuer took part in a training session with some outfield players and impressed bystanders so much that some of the supporters came up and asked who the new signing was and if they could have his autograph. "I am Manuel Neuer, your third-choice goalkeeper," he replied in typically straight-faced fashion. The goalkeeper, meanwhile, is often seen taking on the outfield players in five-verses-two sessions and Oliver Reck, who played more than 450 games for Werder Bremen and Schalke, says he thinks Neuer could play as an outfield player in the German third division.

In Neuer's first season as No1 he bamboozled everyone by hurling the ball over 60 metres to Peter Lovenkrands, who set up the winning goal against Hertha Berlin. His majestic throws are no flukes. The Schalke youth teams, under the guidance of Matuschak, get their goalkeepers to incessantly throw balls at three small goals stationed on the halfway line.

Neuer made his Schalke debut at the age of 20 in 2006, having displaced the veteran Frank Rost, and became the Germany No1 goalkeeper in the lead-up to the 2010 World Cup after his good friend and team-mate Robert Enke had killed himself and René Adler suffered an injury. Neuer was deeply affected by Enke's death – the whole team were – and their performances in South Africa were tributes to their former team-mate.

Neuer is the undisputed No1 for the national team and is expected to remain so for the next decade. He has had his setbacks and was once labelled "butterfinger Neuer" by the tabloids after a series of high-profile mistakes, but he responded with pride and determination and, a few weeks later, was Schalke's hero in a penalty shoot-out against Porto in the Champions League.

He takes a pretty relaxed view of life and was unperturbed when a whole continent outed him as gay earlier this year. One South American publication mistranslated an interview in which Neuer had said that "it would be good if a professional football came out because it would help others to do the same" by declaring that Neuer was gay - and proud of it. A string of media outlets across the continent repeated the claim and therefore, now, if you start typing Manuel Neuer into English Google the first suggestions for the next words are "Manchester United" and "gay".

United, however, are not the only club to have seemingly missed out on Neuer. Arsenal, too, will be upset that they did not try harder to convince him to move to north London seven years go. Lehmann remembers that he was made aware of Neuer's precociousness as early as 2004: "I saw an under-19 game and he was great. At the time I also had meetings with our chief scout once a week and he told me he had spotted a really good goalkeeper: Manuel Neuer. My goalkeeping coach had him watched and there was even talk about Arsenal trying to sign him."

Either way, it may be that Neuer would have found it difficult to settle at Old Trafford considering what would have been a likely clash with Rio Ferdinand over which music to play in the dressing room. Neuer has admitted he is a hot-headed person but says he calms down before games by listening to AC/DC. "Heavy metal is the sound of Schalke," he said. "No one listens to Lady Gaga in the team bus. With AC/DC I cool myself down and I won't risk a red card so that I weaken my team's chances to win the game. The last man must always project strength and that is what I try to do."